Officials are probing how a 51-year-old highway bridge came to collapse in the Italian port city of Genoa yesterday, killing at least 26 people and injuring 16 others as it sent dozens of vehicles tumbling into a heap of concrete and twisted steel.

Clive Palmer says he never wanted to win Parliament seat

Mining magnate and Queensland MP Clive Palmer has reportedly claimed he "had other plans" for 2014 and only ran for Parliament at his wife's urging.

The head of the Palmer United Party told an electrical and communication industry luncheon that he had deliberately tried to avoid being elected and that Parliament was no fun, the Courier Mail reported.

However, he said he would see his term through.

"Once you’re elected you can’t run away from that responsibility," he said.

He said he intentionally chose to run for the House of Representatives, not the Senate, as he thought the chances of being elected to the former body were lower.

The Palmer United Party was a surprise success story of the 2013 election, winning the balance of power in the Senate.

The party has been able to delay the introduction of the government's unpopular Medicare co-payment policy, with Mr Palmer previously declaring it "dead and buried".